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Spymaster - Brad Thor

CHAPTER 1

The limbs of the tall pines hung heavy with ice. When they snapped, they gave off cracks that echoed through the forest like gunfire.

With each one, the small counterterrorism team from Norway’s Police Security Service, known as the PST, halted its advance and froze in place.

Seconds—sometimes even entire minutes—passed before they felt comfortable enough to begin moving again.

No one had expected the storm to be this bad. Ice covered everything and made the sloped ground almost impossible to walk on.

Several of the team members had wanted to wait. Their leader, though, had ordered them forward. The assault had to take place tonight.

Backing them up was a contingent of Norwegian Forsvarets Spesialkommandos, or FSK for short. Their commander wasn’t crazy about hitting a target under these conditions either, but he had reviewed the intelligence and had come to the same conclusion.

The two outsiders, sent up from North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters at the last minute and forced onto the team by the Norwegian government, didn’t get a vote. Though the American looked as if he could handle himself, and probably had on multiple occasions, they knew nothing about his background or the woman he was with. Therefore, the pair from NATO HQ also didn’t get any weapons. None of the Norwegians wanted to get shot in the back.

Encrypted radios, outfitted with bone conduction headsets, kept them connected to each other and to the PST operations center. They wore the latest panoramic night-vision goggles and carried a range of firearms from H&K 416s and MP5s to next generation Glock 17s and USP Tactical pistols. Theirs was one of the best-equipped, best-trained teams the country had ever fielded for a domestic counterterrorism operation.

Their target was a weathered cabin in a remote, heavily wooded area. It had a long, grass-covered roof pierced by a dented black stovepipe. A season’s worth of firewood had been chopped and stacked outside.

Even if the weather hadn’t gone bad, conventional unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance was worthless. The density of the trees, combined with the shrieking, bitterly cold winds, also meant that the Nano drone the FSK carried was impossible to fly. They had been left with no other option than to go in blind.

As the teams slowly picked their way through the forest, sheets of snow and ice blew at them like shards of broken glass.

The last five hundred meters were the worst. The cabin was built in a wide ravine. Maneuvering down, several team members lost their footing—some more than once.

Because of the trees, the FSK’s snipers couldn’t find anywhere to set up. There were no clean lines of fire, and they were forced to move closer to the cabin than they would have liked. The operation was feeling more and more like a mistake.

Ignoring the trepidation sweeping through the ranks, the PST leader pushed on.

Three hundred meters from the cabin, they could make out light from behind the shuttered windows.

Two hundred meters away, they could smell the wood smoke pouring from the stovepipe.

With one hundred meters left to go, the signal was given to halt. No one moved.

CHAPTER 2

There was a chain of explosions, followed by waves of jagged steel shrapnel that tore through the flesh of the approaching counterterrorism operators.

As the antipersonnel devices, hidden waist-high in the trees, began to detonate, Scot Harvath knocked his colleague to the ground and threw himself on top of her.

I can’t breathe!

Stay down, he ordered.

Being stuck at the rear of the column had given them an edge, but just barely. Harvath’s quick reaction had saved both their lives.

Other members of the team hadn’t been so lucky. Blood and body parts were everywhere.

When the explosions stopped, those who could scrambled for cover, dragging their injured teammates behind them. Any dead were left where they lay.

As a former U.S. Navy SEAL, Harvath knew what was coming next. There wouldn’t be much time. Rolling off the woman, Harvath rapidly assessed her for injuries. Are you hurt?

Monika Jasinski shook her head.

Pulling out the Sig Sauer pistol he had hidden under his parka, he pointed toward a slab of rock two PST agents had taken refuge behind. I’ll cover you, he told her. "Go. Now."

Jasinski looked at the gun and then at him with confusion. She had a million questions. Chief among them—Where had the weapon come from and who the hell was this guy really working for? But now wasn’t the time to ask. Getting to her feet, she ran as fast as she could.

Once she had made it to the rock and was safe, Harvath raced over and joined her.

Both of the Norwegians there were in bad shape. One of them was actively bleeding out, the icy ground around him pooling with blood.

Grabbing the tourniquet from the man’s chest rig, Harvath tossed it to Jasinski. Apply it here, he said, pointing to the correct spot on the agent’s severed leg.

Then, picking up the man’s rifle, he turned to the other agent and asked, Can you fight?

Though the man’s left arm looked as if it had been dragged at high speed down a gravel road, he nodded—the pain from his injury evident in his face.

As soon as Harvath asked the question there was an eruption of automatic weapons from the cabin.

The rounds slammed into trees and chewed up the ground around them. When they connected with the slab of rock, large pieces were chipped off and broken away.

Harvath hated gunfights. Both as a SEAL and now as a covert counterterrorism operative, he had seen way too many of them. A gunfight meant you had lost the element of surprise. He hated them even more when there were injured men on his side and the bad guys were holed up in a fortified position.

Quickly returning the Sig beneath his parka, he plucked out his earpiece and let it dangle over his shoulder. The radio was jammed with traffic, all of it in Norwegian and all of it only adding to the chaos.

Checking to make sure the rifle was hot, he flipped the fire selector to semiauto and peeked out from behind his cover.

The cabin was one story, with three windows along its side. The shooters appeared to know what they were doing. They had set up inside, several feet back from the windows, probably prone and atop tables or some other sort of perch. That meant they’d be very tough to take out. But it also meant that their field of fire was limited.

Focusing on the closest window, Harvath let loose with his own volley. The PST agent with the bad arm did the same.

Immediately, gunfire was returned on them, and they were forced to retreat behind the rock.

Nearby, other Norwegian operatives did the same, but it was an anemic response. There weren’t enough of them in the fight. They were pinned down.

When the rounds stopped hitting their cover, Harvath leaned out again. Before he could fire, though, he noticed that the volume of smoke coming from the stovepipe had increased. They were burning more than just logs. Now, they were likely burning evidence. Targeting the same window, he opened up with another barrage of fire.

Emptying his magazine, he leaned back behind the rock and motioned for Monika to toss him a fresh one from the chest rig of the PST agent she was tending.

Swapping the mags, he tried to come up with a plan. The FSK members, though, were already ahead of him.

Unlike the PST—which was Norway’s version of the FBI—the FSK were Norwegian military and kitted out like soldiers. That kit included M320 H&K grenade launchers mounted beneath several of the team’s rifles. Someone had made a decision to end this thing, now.

Maneuvering into place, an operative drew fire while two of his teammates stepped into the open and each launched a 40-millimeter high-explosive round at the cabin.

Only one of the grenades needed to find its mark. In this case, both did, sailing through their respective windows and exploding in a hail of shrapnel inside.

Moments later, a fire started, and thick, black smoke began pouring out of the windows.

Harvath didn’t waste any time. Stuffing the pockets of his parka with extra magazines, he grabbed a thermal scope from the severely injured PST agent and took off for the cabin.

Behind him, he could hear the Norwegians yelling for him to wait—to not go in until backup arrived. That wasn’t going to happen. There was no telling what evidence had already been destroyed. If there was anything left, he wanted to get to it before it was gone.

He used the trees for concealment and moved at an angle. Drawing parallel with the front door, he raised his weapon and crossed the icy ground toward it.

Pulling off his glove, he put his hand against the door. It was already way too hot to the touch.

Slinging his rifle, he flipped his night-vision goggles up, removed his other glove, and drew his Sig. With the cabin on fire, his night vision was of no use. The thermal scope, though, was a different story.

After he powered it up, he took a step back, readied his weapon, and kicked in the door.

Fueled by the introduction of fresh oxygen, tongues of flames came racing toward him, but he had already moved out of the way. Bullets or fire, he knew there was nothing good waiting on the other side of the door.

When no one engaged him, he risked a glimpse inside using the thermal scope, which allowed him to see through the smoke. There were bodies scattered everywhere. None of them was moving.

He figured most of them were dead, killed by the grenades. Dead or alive, they were all about to be consumed by the fire.

Harvath wanted to get inside, but going through the front door was out of the question. The fire was too hot. He decided to try the side.

Crouching, he took a quick look around the corner. If someone was there, waiting to take a shot, they’d be focused higher up.

There wasn’t anyone there. But there was an open window with smoke billowing out of it. Raising the thermal scope to his eye, he looked at the ground and could see the heat signature of a set of footprints leading away from the cabin.

Carefully, below the window line, he moved toward the open window and risked another glance inside. The structure was almost entirely engulfed in flames. There was no way he’d be able to find anything inside, much less escape without getting very badly burned. No matter how much he wanted to recover evidence, it wasn’t worth it. Instead, he took off in pursuit of the footprints.

CHAPTER 3

This side of the ravine was just as treacherous as the side Harvath, Jasinski, and the Norwegians had come down earlier. From what he could tell, the rabbit he was chasing didn’t have that much of a head start. The footprints were still glowing warm in his scope.

Based on the size of the print and length of stride, he guessed it was a man, about his size: five-foot-ten or maybe a little taller. He was hauling ass, but he wasn’t very graceful. The thermal scope indicated multiple locations where the subject had lost his footing and had fallen to the ground. But where was he going?

Harvath had done his homework. He knew the area, had memorized maps and satellite imagery. There was an old logging road that cut through the forest about three klicks from the cabin. There was also an abandoned rail line just beyond it. He figured it was more likely this guy had a car stashed somewhere. He had to be headed toward the road.

It was a bitch using the scope to track him, but it was the only way to spot the man’s heat signature. Stopping to flip his night-vision goggles up slowed Harvath down. He did what he could to quicken his pace and close the gap, but the faster he moved, the greater the chance he’d slip and come down hard. Cracking his knee, an elbow, or his skull wasn’t something he was interested in.

That said, he wasn’t interested in losing the rabbit either. He’d been tracking this group for months. Portugal, Spain, Greece. They’d always been three steps ahead. Until tonight.

Now, he was ahead of them. He’d arrived before they could carry out another similar attack. Momentum hadn’t necessarily shifted fully in his favor, but it had looked over its shoulder and glanced in his direction.

That was good enough. Considering the stakes, Harvath would take anything he could get.

Checking the scope again, he tracked the footprints until they disappeared around the next bend. The rabbit obviously knew the forest, eschewing established trails for making his own way through the trees.

That was fine by Harvath. He had hunted worse than rabbits over his career. Ice be damned, he doubled his pace.

Minutes later, he caught sight of his quarry. Jeans, hiking boots, hooded jacket. Over his shoulder was a backpack.

Transitioning to his rifle, Harvath attempted to capture the rabbit in his sights, but before he could press the trigger, the man disappeared.

Fuck.

He swept the weapon from left to right. There was nothing. He was gone. Letting the rifle hang, Harvath transitioned back to his pistol to leave one hand free for the thermal scope.

Pushing deeper into the trees, he continued to follow the heat signature of the footprints. The ground was still slick, but it was less ice and more snow. Fifty meters later, there was a shot.

Harvath dropped to the ground as the bullet snapped over his head. The rabbit was armed. Where the hell was he?

Peering through the scope, he could see a break in the trees up ahead. And there, making his way toward the logging road, gun in hand, was the white-hot outline of his target.

Raising his pistol, Harvath took up the slack in the trigger and fired three rounds.

The rabbit went down.

For several seconds, Harvath watched for movement. Seeing none, he cautiously closed the distance.

Approaching the body, he saw a lot of blood. One of his bullets had caught the man in the neck.

After kicking the man’s gun aside, he felt for a pulse. Nothing. Removing the rabbit’s rucksack, he opened the top and looked inside.

It contained envelopes of currency, driver’s licenses, and several cell phones. By the looks of it, the man had tried to sanitize the cabin. Leaving the cash, Harvath pocketed the phones. And after quickly photographing the IDs, pocketed those as well.

Patting down the rabbit, Harvath snatched the man’s phone, photographed his personal ID, and examined his pocket litter. He took pictures of everything.

Wanting to transmit it all back to the U.S. as quickly as possible, he headed for the logging road. There, he’d find a break in the trees and would be able to get a signal.

When he arrived at the road, he pulled out his satellite phone, powered it up, and connected it to his cell phone. Using an encrypted app created for the military called XGate BLACK, he compressed and reformatted his photos so that they would upload faster. The sooner they could dig in on the people who had been in that cabin, the better.

As the photos prepared to load, he drafted a quick situation report to be included in his email.

Norseman + 1, Eagles Oscar.

Norseman was Harvath’s call-sign, Jasinski was his plus one, and Eagles Oscar meant that they were both uninjured.

As he wasn’t in a position to be resupplied, he refrained from giving any updates on his current level of ammunition or the condition of his weapon. He simply went straight to the meat:

While the U.S. military had switched to the term MAM, short for military-age-male, as well as EKIA for enemy-killed-in-action, his organization still preferred Tango. It didn’t engage in a lot of navel-gazing.

With the photos ready to go and a strong signal from overhead, he reviewed the message and hit Send.

Moments later, his sat phone vibrated with a reply:

Message received. Full Stop. UPDATE: O.M. is worsening.

O.M. was code for Harvath’s boss and mentor, Reed Carlton—someone he was very close to and someone whose health had been deteriorating. The news was not good. He kept his reply short and to the point:

Understood. Will be back in touch soon.

Once the message had sent, he powered down his sat phone, disconnected his cell, and headed back toward the cabin.

It took him a moment to respond. He was still thinking about Carlton, trying to put pieces together several steps ahead. One of them ran, he finally said.

Is he still alive?

Harvath shook his head.

Damn it. I tried to hail you over the radio. Why didn’t you answer?

He pointed to the earpiece hanging over his shoulder.

You could have waited, she declared. And by the way, who authorized you to carry a weapon?

He wasn’t in the mood for an interrogation. Not now, he replied.

His response only made her angrier. This was her investigation, not his, yet for some unknown reason she’d been forced to accept him as a consultant. Something very strange was going on and she intended to get to the bottom of it. No matter what.

CHAPTER 4

RESTON, VIRGINIA

Lydia Ryan hadn’t wanted the enormous corner office, but Reed Carlton—the firm’s founder and namesake—had insisted. As The Carlton Group’s new director, it was only appropriate that she take it. Considering all of the job’s responsibilities, she was entitled to reap its benefits.

The view was amazing—even at night. The Carlton Group occupied the very top floor of a twenty-five-story glass office building, ten minutes from Dulles International.

They had their own private elevator, with access from the garage, which allowed them to secretly whisk people up without passing through the lobby—a must for a private intelligence agency, especially one now tasked with some of the CIA’s most sensitive assignments.

Because they handled classified information, the entire space had been constructed to the strictest TEMPEST requirements. Meant to safeguard against compromising emanations or CE, TEMPEST regulated the mechanical, electrical, and acoustic signals from all equipment used for receiving, transmitting, processing, analyzing, encrypting, and decrypting classified information. Every possible step had been taken to prevent both active and passive eavesdropping.

The firm had been just as diligent in protecting its IT, as well as all of its communications systems. In fact, wherever they could, they exceeded the standards. It put their facility years ahead of anything the government was doing.

It had cost a fortune, but it was an investment Reed Carlton had been willing to make. He was blazing an entirely new trail with his firm and being on the cutting edge of technology was sine qua non.

Carlton had a gift for recognizing threats before they ever appeared on the horizon. He also had the type of mind that was always steps ahead of everyone else.

During his three decades at the CIA, he had traveled the world, battling everything from communists to Islamic terrorists. His greatest achievement, though, was establishing the Agency’s now famed Counter Terrorism Center. There, he had dreamed up and carried out some of its most daring operations.

When the time had come to retire, he tried it, but it didn’t agree with him. He missed the great game. Part of him resented its going on without him. What’s more, the threats facing America hadn’t abated. They were growing. And as they grew, his beloved CIA was changing—and not for the better.

It was being overwhelmed and subverted by bureaucrats. Operations were being scaled back, or scuttled altogether. Management was obsessed with minimizing losses. An infamous maxim, pinned to the wall in one manager’s office, read Big ops, big problems. Small ops, small problems. No ops, no problems.

Like a terrible vine, the bureaucracy had wrapped itself around Langley’s throat and was choking it to death. No longer was it a vibrant, dynamic agency carrying out some of the nation’s most dangerous and necessary business. It had all but come to a halt.

The calcification had terrified Carlton. Without an effective intelligence service, the United States was in serious trouble. So Carlton had done the only thing he could do. He had come out of retirement and had founded his own private intelligence firm.

Unlike private military corporations, The Carlton Group offered more than just hired guns; it offered global intelligence gathering and analysis. For select clients, it went even further—offering full-blown covert operations.

In essence, he had created a smaller, faster version of the CIA. The United States government quickly became one of his biggest customers.

He had modeled his new company upon Wild Bill Donovan’s OSS—the precursor to the CIA. Their guiding principles were the same—if you fall, fall forward in service of the mission. Only the mission mattered.

To staff his operation, Carlton recruited the same type of individuals as Donovan. He wanted courageous, highly effective self-starters for whom success was the only option. He focused on the elite tiers of the military and intelligence worlds, people who had been proven, people who had been sent to the darkest corners of the world, tasked with absolutely impossible assignments, and had prevailed. He had an exceptional eye for talent.

Looking across the hall, Lydia Ryan could see Scot Harvath’s office. It was smaller than hers, but that had been his choice. He had turned down the Director position.

Carlton had been disappointed. His greatest asset, the foundation his company was built upon, was his wisdom, his hard-won experience, and his global network of intelligence contacts.

He had distilled his thirty-plus years of espionage experience and drilled it as deeply as he could into Harvath’s bones. He had forged him into one of the most cunning weapons the United States had in its arsenal.

He had also taught him about leadership and running an organization—specifically The Carlton Group. But any time the subject of one day taking over had come up, Harvath had made it abundantly clear he wasn’t interested. He preferred being in the field. That’s what he was good at.

When Carlton was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he pulled out all the stops. Harvath was too valuable to keep putting into the field. Scot was his protégé and he wanted him as his successor. And, like any good intelligence officer, Carlton was willing to use anything, even a personal tragedy, to get what he wanted.

He played upon Harvath’s emotions—particularly his sense of duty. He used guilt, leveraging their father-and-son-like bond. He even tried to shame Scot, suggesting that he owed it to the family he was starting to stay home and to limit going overseas.

That last attempt was particularly egregious. Harvath was dating a woman whom he was very much in love with and she had a little boy. It was the perfect, ready-made family, especially for a man who had spent the better part of his adult life kicking in doors and shooting bad guys in the head. To drag them into this discussion showed him how desperate and even how fearful Carlton was of the future. Not only the future of his business, but more important, the future of the country.

Out of his love for Carlton, or the Old Man, as Harvath affectionately referred to him, he agreed to a compromise. Harvath would keep one foot in the field and one foot in the office. To do that, though, he insisted Carlton hire a full-time Director.

After a lengthy meeting in the Oval Office with the President and the Director of Central Intelligence, approval was given to hire Lydia Ryan.

Up until that point, she had been Deputy Director at the CIA. The President had handpicked her, and her boss, to clear out the deadwood at the Agency, streamline it, and get it aggressively back in the fight.

It was a Herculean task—akin to cleaning out the Augean Stables—and they soon realized it would take far longer than any of them ever anticipated. Entrenched bureaucracy needed to be torn out, root and branch. The most difficult part of tearing it out was that it fought like hell every step of the way.

While the Director tried to rescue the CIA, Ryan came over to helm The Carlton Group. It would function as a lifeboat of sorts—a place where critical operations that couldn’t be handled by Langley, would quietly be carried out until the Agency could be rehabilitated.

A handsome New Englander with a prominent chin and silver hair, Carlton had been a legend in the intelligence business—the spymaster’s spymaster. He was brilliant. To have his mind taken from him was the cruelest twist of all.

It robbed the nation of one of its greatest treasures. He literally knew where all the bodies were buried—names, dates, accounts, passwords, places, times, who had screwed whom, who owed whom. . . . He was a walking encyclopedia of global espionage information and it was all slipping away—quickly.

Harvath and Ryan were in a race against time, harvesting what they could. They took turns visiting with him, never knowing when Carlton would have enough energy or lucidity.

Some days were better than others. Carlton would drop cognitively, then level off, and drop again. It tore both their hearts out, but especially Harvath’s.

Then one day, out of the blue, there’d been a dangerous lapse.

CHAPTER 5

Ryan had gone to Carlton’s home to sit and spend some time with him. If he felt up to talking, she was always prepared to take notes.

When she arrived, he was engaged in an animated discussion with one of his private, round-the-clock nurses. While it was wonderful to see him so talkative, he was regaling his caregiver with highly classified information about America’s relationship with the Saudis. Not good.

Pulling out her phone, she had called Harvath first. He was at the office and told her he’d get to the house as soon as he could. Next, she called her former boss at the CIA and suggested that the Office of the General Counsel get the nurses to sign national security nondisclosure agreements. It was a temporary fix, a stopgap, but it had to be done—immediately. There was no telling what he had already revealed.

Coming back into the den, Lydia offered to sit with Carlton so the nurse could work on preparing his lunch. The Old Man immediately began telling her how beautiful she was.

She was, indeed, a beautiful woman—tall, with long black hair, green eyes, full lips, and high cheekbones—the product of a Greek mother and an Irish father. He wasn’t paying her some passing, sweet compliment, though. His internal brakes were coming off. He was saying things people might think, but knew better than to give voice to.

The doctors had warned this might happen, but no one expected it so soon.

She tried to take advantage of the situation by pressing topics they needed information on; plumbing areas where his mind had gone dark too quickly.

By the time Harvath arrived, she had assembled several pages of notes. How reliable the information was, she couldn’t know. It would have to be checked out. Nevertheless, the visit had been somewhat productive.

How’s he doing? Harvath had asked.

"He’s doing fine," Carlton answered, speaking for himself. There were moments where he appeared to have decent self-awareness. Unfortunately, if you pressed him on details, he often couldn’t access them. In essence, his high degree of intelligence allowed him to bluff his way through a lot of conversations.